To date 90 to 95% of the flax were gathered in the departments of Nord Pas-de-Calais, Seine Maritime and Oise. The gathering should come to an end in the coming days.

The late areas are the following ones: Eure (15 to 60% of gathered flax), Calvados (15 to 30%), Seine-et-Marne (between 15 and 30%) and Aisne (around 50%).

Heavy rains are expected from Thursday on (40 to 50 mm of water in Eure, around 30 in Calvados…). The farmers will ask the scutchers to analyse the fibres and then will decide whether they should gather all the remaining flax or only part of it. It will depend on the retting degree of the fibres as well as the work schedule of the farmers.

Calvados 7 september 2016